Durban - A massive presence of African youth was felt at the Conference of the Youth (COY7) at the weekend.
Youth from different African countries, including a huge delegation from South Africa, gathered for a three-day conference to tackle the issues on climate change. The conference ends on Sunday.
More than 500 youth responded to the call for action and will use ideas, new contacts and deliberations from the conference to improve their communities back home.
The youth have had a jam-packed program since Friday and kicked off the conference with a tribute to African Nobel Prize Laureate, the late Wangari Maathai. Maathai, an environmental activist who won a Nobel Peace Prize in 2004, remains an inspiration for the youth around the world.
The passion and enthusiasm of the youth was palatable throughout the conference - they have been using many creative channels to reach out to government and world leaders to hear their voices. They have used videos, social networking sites and art forms.
Budding entrepreneur and musician David Geeter wants to use music as a platform to discuss the issue of climate change.
Geeter is from California in the USA and took a break from studying at Stanford University for a year to focus on making music. He believes people connect through music and it is a great way to talk about climate change.
Geeter, who already has his demo mix tape, said he wanted to connect with musicians at the conference and find out what they were doing in their countries to mitigate the effects of climate change.
Hilary Bowman from the Australian Youth Climate Coalition, who arrived early to help organise the conference, said the youth would definitely be able to go home and grow their domestic campaigns even further after this meeting.
"The youth will get more experience in becoming a climate activist and will also know how to create opportunities for social and political activism," said Bowman.
George Omollo Oyengo from Kenya, a delegate at COY7, said the youth in his country were quite aware of the impact of climate change.
"There are many campaigns in rural areas and the youth also do practical things like planting trees," he said.
Oyengo said the change in climate patterns in Kenya was already taking its toll on food security.
"We used to have rainfall from February to April, now that is not the case and farmers are not prepared. The crops are becoming dry but when we have lots of rain, there are floods and people are losing their homes," said Oyengo.
He will return to Kenya and continue being an environmental activist and pursue more youth to join the movement.
Fatima Ibrahim, part of Youth at the United Nations (YOUNGO), said: "Climate change is a human rights issue. In some cases indigenous people's rights are in being affected when they are being moved out of forests. There will also be focus on finance for adaption to climate change."
Meanwhile, Shraddha Rajcoomar, a South African youth climate change ambassador, said she enjoyed the vibrant atmosphere. "It's just so great to be among people who are committed to saving the earth, this is a social event but with a purpose."
